Over the past 4 years I have been working on a set of WW2 rules. They are aimed at infantry combat rather than lots of tanks. WGF figures are featured (see page 57 for the ad).

The rules are simple with the usual roll to hit, roll to kill combat system (saving rolls are out, instead the difficultly to kill is increased). Each side activates a single unit alternately (rather than moving the entire army in one go) and during an activation the unit can perform a variety of actions.

The rules cover the whole of WW2 from the deserts of Africa, islands in the Pacific and the combats in Europe/Russia.

Well First I would like to see these rules so could you please leave us a link to them, we need to see what you have written down already in regards to units.

Also what do you mean by "units" gameplay wise, do mean individual figures, squads or something above that, in short is this a mass combat game or a skirmisher? do you have the Third party combatants like the cursed soldiers of Poland and the Islamic Moro of the Philippines?

A unit is a squad/platoon or tank. Basically its a unit that can be purchased from the army lists. One of the objectives was to have a game where a player could comfortably control around 100 infantry and 10 tanks. So thats about the combat strength of a company.

There are six army lists included in the rules. British, French (1940), German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and USA. Very basic lists, each only has two pages to fit into.

zedeyejoe wrote:Yep, click on the link included in the mention of the Yahoo group.

A unit is a squad/platoon or tank. Basically its a unit that can be purchased from the army lists. One of the objectives was to have a game where a player could comfortably control around 100 infantry and 10 tanks. So thats about the combat strength of a company.

There are six army lists included in the rules. British, French (1940), German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and USA. Very basic lists, each only has two pages to fit into.

This sounds interesting! I will definately check them out.

Since this is a game (in real life we move/act truly simultaneously) I think the concept of moving one unit and then the opponent one is interesting.

The idea of a unit at a time (then the other side) comes about from my experiences playing games where each player moves their entire army and fights before the other side. That can result in one player being able to cripple the other player before they get a chance to have their turn.

But the Over-Watch rule prevents a player from doing anything too silly. But over-watch is blocked on an enemy unit once it is Shaken. So basically that comes down to, it being suicidal to attack an enemy force that is ready for you but if you can isolate or weaken the enemy, attacking them is a lot easier.

Russians might make a good solitaire opponent as they have an overall army plan that they gain morale bonus if the units stick to the plan. Or attacking Japanese in defense. The Japanese just sit there and take it, unless they go berserk and launch a Banzai charge!

I plan to publish for real at the end of June. So you have about a month left to include your views.

Yep the rules are up and out there. There will always be new rules, the question is do you find a new set of rules better and can your existing figures be used in the new set. In answer to those questions the answer should be yes. This is the sales pitch

Action all Fronts are rules for company level World War 2 land battles. Each model represents an individual soldier or vehicle. The rules do not use a specific figure size but rather let the player choose what size and measurement system they want to use. We would recommend figures between 28mm to 15mm in size.

The rules feature:▪ Limited visibility, which limits the enemy player to shoot only at what has been spotted rather than being able to target anything on the table.▪ Alternate unit activation instead of one army then the other army. Overwatch fire is included.▪ Heroes to allow for those soldiers whose actions go beyond those expected from the majority. Including some details of those real-life soldiers whose exploits won them their country's highest military awards.

Again, these rules are available as free download play-test version pdf from the Veni Vidi Vici website.

I had a discussion with some players using some other WW2 rules. They said that heroes were nothing new and that their rules already covered them. Doing a bit of digging it seemed that the rules for heroes had come out in supplements and were limited to tank crews. So thats infantry not covered to start with . Anyway how about this guy for a hero, an artillery observer:

Lets take the example of Lt. J. R. Fox Medal of Honour (posthumous) winner at the battle of Sommocolonia, December 1944.

"During the preceding few weeks, Lieutenant Fox served with the 598th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer. On Christmas night, enemy soldiers gradually infiltrated the town of Sommocolonia in civilian clothes, and by early morning the town was largely in hostile hands. Commencing with a heavy barrage of enemy artillery at 0400 hours on 26 December 1944, an organized attack by uniformed German units began. Being greatly outnumbered, most of the United States Infantry forces were forced to withdraw from the town, but Lieutenant Fox and some other members of his observer party voluntarily remained on the second floor of a house to direct defensive artillery fire. At 0800 hours, Lieutenant Fox reported that the Germans were in the streets and attacking in strength. He then called for defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance. As the Germans continued to press the attack towards the area that Lieutenant Fox occupied, he adjusted the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally he was warned that the next adjustment would bring the deadly artillery right on top of his position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired as this was the only way to defeat the attacking soldiers. Later, when a counterattack retook the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's body was found with the bodies of approximately 100 German soldiers. "

So under the rules Lt Fox would be allowed to convert failed requests for artillery fire support into successes (using hero points) and keep up a steady fire on the advancing enemy. And of course by varying the number of hero points, you can make a figure a greater or lesser hero. We played the the Tiger tank scenario from the film Fury (Tiger in ambush getting the first shot, against 4 Shermans at 800 yrds range). We played it through around 20 times. Without a hero, all the Shermans are destroyed, no contest. With a hero (with 2 hero points) in command of the Sherman 76, the Tiger gets killed with one, sometimes two Shermans surviving.

But the real biggy for me is you have to be able to see what you shoot at. So a careful advance using cover is going to work better than charging across an open field. To my mind, more realistic tactics give a better game.